222 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



also rebelled, and completed the defeat and impoverishment of the Portu- 

 guese. " An attempt was made to punish this rebel, but it was unsuccessful, 

 and he has lately been pardoned by the home government. One point in the 

 narrative is interesting. They came to a field of sugar-cane so large that 

 4,000 men eating it during two days did not finish the whole. Nyaude kept 

 the Portuguese shut up in their fort for two years, and as he held the com- 

 mand of the river, they could only get goods sufficient to buy food by sending 

 to Kilimane by an overland route along the north bank of the Zambesi." 

 The memory of one man's sufferings in this affair evoked the following from 

 Livingstone — " The mother country did not, in these ' Kaffre wars,' pay the 

 bills, so no one became rich or blamed the missionaries. Major Sicard from 

 his good character had great influence with the natives, and put a stop to the 

 war more than once by his mere presence on the spot. We heard of him 

 among the Banyai as a man with whom they would never fight, because he 

 had a good heart." No doubt the influence of this good and generous man 

 helped Livingstone and his party in their march through the districts which 

 had so recently been disturbed. 



In consequence of a sudden change of temperature, Major Sicard and 

 Livingstone and nearly every person in the house suffered from an attack of 

 fever ; Livingstone soon recovered, and was unremitting in his attention to 

 the others. His stock of quinine becoming exhausted, his attention was 

 drawn by the Portuguese to a tree called by the natives kumbanzo, the bark 

 of which is an admirable substitute. He says, " there was little of it to be 

 found at Tete — while forests of it are at Senna, and near the delta of Kili- 

 mane. It seems quite a providential arrangement, that the remedy for fever 

 should be found in the greatest abundance where it is most needed. . . . The 

 thick soft bark of the root is the part used by the natives; the Portuguese use 

 that of the tree itself. I immediately began to use a decoction of the bark of 

 the root, and my men found it so efficacious that they collected small quan- 

 tities of it for themselves, and kept it in little bags for future use." 



On the 22nd of April Livingstone started on his voyage down the river 

 to Killimane, having selected sixteen men from among his party who could 

 manage canoes. Many more wished to accompany him, but as there was a 

 famine at Kilimane in consequence of a failure of the crops, during which 

 thousands of slaves were dying of hunger, he could take no more than was 

 absolutely necessary. The commandant sent Lieutenant Miranda with 

 Livingstone to convey him to the coast. At Senna, where they stopped, they 

 found a more complete ruin and prostration than at Tete. For fifteen miles 

 from the head of the delta of the Zambesi, the Mutu, which is the head 

 waters of the Kilimane river, and was then erroneously supposed to be the 

 only outlet to the Zambesi, was not navigable, and the party had to walk 

 under the hot sun. This together with the fatigue brought on a severe attack 



